The UNDERRATED CRIME.

The UNDERRATED CRIME. 

This one is for both sections, the bullies and the ones who get bullied because in a way we don’t realise…both are victimised.

“As a child, I was bullied so severely, I once ended up in the hospital with a concussion and temporary blindness” - Marshall Mathers (EMINEM)

“For oral tests I used to bunk school, fall sick, break my hand or get a sprain because of my stuttering problem. Unfortunately it is always one of the handicaps who are made fun of.” – Hritik Roshan

“Bullying in high school is just one terrible memory that replays every time I had a moment of insecurity” – Jason Segel

“I was bullied because I had trouble reading. So many times some big bully came up, pushed me and mocked me. My heart started pounding, I’d sweat and I felt like I’m going to throw up” – Tom Cruise

 “I was bullied so badly that my father used to accompany me to my school just to make sure I wouldn’t be attacked or assaulted” – Jessica Alba

“I allowed it because I was afraid. I was bullied until I prevented a new student from being bullied. BY STANDING UP FOR HIM, I LEARNT HOW TO STAND UP FOR MYSELF” - Jackie Chan

“I didn’t fit in my high school, I felt like a freak” – Lady Gaga

“I took beating from several boys for years. They put me through hell punching and kicking me all the time” – Christian Bale

  “I’d gotten used to being yelled at and bullied outside the home for my skin colour, so as a kid I just kind of assumed my mom was yelling at me for the same reason - for not being white.” – Russell Peters

“I was called Brownie and was told to take my curry and go back to my country”– Priyanka Chopra.

 “People would write hate petitions about me and send them around to be signed. They’d come to my house, stand across the street and yell things” – Demi Lovato

Do we not know all these people?  Aren’t they as successful as we would wish to be someday? May be even more than what we wish to be someday. Now let us think about it in this way. Before becoming the huge personalities they are right now, before becoming the batman or the Greek god, the top paid comedian alive or the most famous living martial arts – legend, the Rap God or the miss world… these people were just kids who made it through a rough childhood.

Now, I can’t stress enough upon the importance of us understanding the fact that these people weren’t born celebrities. They too were bullied and beaten up and ignored and assaulted and underestimated and made fun of. They were discouraged enough and they could have made an excuse out of it. But they made it through. They didn’t give up. And I am pretty sure that their buddies who used to bully them aren’t all nearly as successful as these people are. We need to understand that what people see in us reflects their character more than ours.

We need to stir in the fact that “Fat…Skinny…bulky…weak…pale…dark…rich…poor…ugly…pretty…funny…boring…talented…dumb” all these are relative terms and so they don’t matter. Logically speaking, one simply cannot be judged on something which is not standard itself. None of this is standard. If we think about it, no one is universally pretty to everyone and neither is anyone universally ugly and in all aspects. Each one of us is beautiful in a way no one else around us is. Each one of us is talented in a field most others are not and that is for certain even if we are yet to discover it. Money doesn’t define richness and the complexion signifies absolutely nothing.

Friends, if we believe we are bullied for the wrong reasons and something isn’t fair enough, we must start being fair enough to ourselves. Each and every single one of us matters in a way nobody else does. It is not a consolation or a myth; in fact it is the sheer truth. The mere fact that we exist and we are where we are shouts out our importance. Nothing happens without a reason, not even our birth. Let’s not let anyone tell us that we don’t matter, because that’s just not true. That is rubbish. Because they don’t know much about us, but we do. They don’t walk in our shoes, but we do. They don’t care for us right, but we do. Let’s keep it that way.

Let’s NOT be victimised by something that’s not even true.

To all of us on the other side, who find it rejoicing to see someone in pain… guys we got to get a life. Honestly. Have we really become so shallow that our enjoyment is not only sourced by, but is dependent on someone else’s suffering? OR ARE WE TRYING TO FILL OUR OWN DARK SIDES WITH THEIRS?

Either way, it isn’t going to work. Even if we overlook the fact that our single action of misconduct towards someone might cost them their lives, it is not going to help us either. No matter how far deep we think we have buried our conscience, it still prevails in us and there’s no way we are going to get permanent amusement from something like this. It is time we realise that because the sooner we do it, the better it is.

But there aren’t just two sides. There is a third one too. We, the observers. We who pass by and ignore such activities. We must understand what would a helping hand mean to someone in a situation as helpless as this act of being bullied.

Of all the students being bullied each year, around 65% of them do not even report it. Each year thousands of teenagers suffer from this underrated crime and suffer from diseases like hypertension, depression, suicidal intentions, insomnia, bulimia and others without even saying it out loud. We can’t even imagine the intensity of grief and guilt and disappointment and shame the kid has to carry inside his mind.

So, let us all make a promise to ourselves. No matter where we stand in this trio of situations; bullying, being bullied or just passing by… let’s stop this from happening. Let us promise ourselves not to encourage BULLYING, for it is a crime. The underrated crime.

-Akshat Vyas